ONCB chief resigns to run in Thailand's gubernatorial election

BANGKOK, January 14 (TNA) - Secretary-General of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) Police General Pongsapat Pongcharoen, who is also Deputy National Police Chief, has decided to resign from all incumbent posts to run in the forthcoming gubernatorial election. Police General Pongsapat met Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at Bangkok's Government House on Monday morning to inform her of his decision to contest the upcoming Bangkok governor election as the candidate of the ruling Pheu Thai Party. Police General Pongsapat later told reporters that he is now ready for the contest and has already prepared his vote campaign policies, noting that Bangkok administration needs cooperation from the government. Police General Pongsapat will officially resign as the ONCB chief on January 15 and he will then join the ruling Pheu Thai Party and will be officially introduced as the ruling party's candidate in the same day. The prime minister said she believes that Police General Pongsapat can serve people in Bangkok well, assuring that her government is ready to cooperate with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and she wished the outgoing ONCB chief and the deputy national police commissioner to win the upcoming gubernatorial election, set on March 3, 2013. (TNA)